TEHRAN-The exhibition “Eye to Eye,” which is underway at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMoCA) has been extended again.

The exhibition, showcasing portraits in modern and contemporary art, has been extended for the third time due to high public interest. It will run until January 12, 2025, alongside the exhibition “Marcos Grigorian: A Retrospective,” which showcases works of the late Iranian-Armenian artist.

The “Eye to Eye” exhibition features over 120 pieces from TMOCA's treasured collection, including selected works by Iranian and international artists in various mediums such as painting, sculpture, and photography. 

Highlighted artists include Francis Bacon, Toulouse-Lautrec, Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, Andy Warhol, Alberto Giacometti, James Ensor, Claude Monet, Jim Dine, Robert Rauschenberg, Fernand Léger, Joan Miró, Kamal-ol-Molk, Bahman Mohasses, Mahmoud Javadipour, Jazeh Tabatabai, Kambiz Derambakhsh, Gholamhossein Nami, Mehdi Sahabi, Farshid Maleki, and Kourosh Golnari, among others.  

Initially launched on October 6, the exhibit was originally set to run until November 17. However, its duration has been extended multiple times, first until November 24, then December 20, and now into the new year due to its popularity among art enthusiasts.

Curated by Jamal Arabzadeh, a faculty member of the University of Art, the exhibition is organized with a research and educational approach. 

In an exclusive interview with the Tehran Times, Arabzadeh explained about selecting the works and designing the exhibition.

“The plan was for all the works to be selected from the items in the museum’s treasured collection, so we did not include any external works, except for two minor cases in the form of sculptures. These were added to bring some formal variety to the space to avoid the monotony of only viewing paintings on the walls. Apart from that, all the other works on display belong to the museum's treasured collection,” Arabzadeh said.

“I had to find a framework around which to shape the exhibition. We faced various challenges in this regard because the works were highly diverse—ranging from modern to contemporary and encompassing significant differences between Western and Iranian pieces. I needed to find a way to categorize them around the theme of portraiture. Ultimately, I settled on a psychoanalytic approach, as it provided a rationale for the diversity and variety in the works,” the curator added.

Regarding the widespread public interest in this exhibition, Arabzadeh noted: “In my opinion, a specific mechanism drove this popularity. It began with the passionate reception of the younger generation of visual arts enthusiasts and their interest in the exhibition. The spread of news and positive feedback from this generation drew the attention of other groups within the visual arts community. Following that, the exhibition gained traction on social media, which caught the attention of the general public. As a result, many of them visited the museum for the first time and became acquainted with this segment of its collection”.

Arabzadeh curated the “Hyperrealism: From Image to Reality” exhibition last year at the TMoCA, and “Eye to Eye” is his second curatorial experience at the museum. He told the Tehran Times that other sections of the museum’s treasured collection could also be showcased in other exhibitions in the future.

On the impact of such exhibitions in bringing the general public closer to art, he clarified: “Hosting any exhibition can be interesting for the general public. This particular exhibition featured various elements that contributed to this outcome. The theme of portraiture, which is more relatable, the enthusiasm of the younger generation, the use of social media, and the dissemination of news all played a role in attracting a larger audience. These aspects can be analyzed, and some of them can be consciously utilized in future exhibitions to help the museum attract even more visitors”.

Jamal Arabzadeh is an Iranian researcher and curator specializing in modern and contemporary art. He has contributed to various projects with an educational and research-based approach, aiming to bridge local and global art. 

Arabzadeh’s work spans fields such as art history and cultural studies, and his innovative curatorial perspective enhances public understanding and appreciation of contemporary art. 

“Eye to Eye” comprises different sections including “Mind and Portrait,” “Self-Portrait,” “Portrait and Melancholy,” “Historical Portraiture,” “Portrait of Women,” “The Dark Room and the History of Portraiture,” and “The Bright Room and a Tool for Precision”.

Simultaneously, the exhibition “Marcos Grigorian: A Retrospective” is underway at the TMocA. It marks the 100th birth anniversary of the renowned artist. This exhibition provides a scholarly overview of five key phases of Grigorian's career, highlighting his contributions to the history of art. 

The retrospective features his expressionist paintings, as well as his iconic “earth art” and works created with straw and clay.

This is the debut solo exhibition of Marcos Grigorian's works at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art in over four decades of operation. The exhibit is organized by the Marcos Grigorian Foundation in Yerevan, Armenia.

This exhibition seeks to contribute to introducing this artist and his considerable influence on the evolution of Iranian contemporary painting to the current generation of painters and art enthusiasts.

Notably, the current exhibition features only a selection of Marcos Grigorian's works. framed within the context of art historiography and approached through research.

Marcos Grigorian (1925–2007) was an impactful artist and gallery owner, celebrated as a pioneer of modern Iranian art. 

Born in Kropotkin, Russia, to an Armenian family fleeing massacre, he moved to Iran in 1930, where he later opened the Apadana Gallery in Tehran in 1949. Grigorian studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome, graduating in 1954, and subsequently established the influential Galerie Esthétique in Tehran. He was instrumental in organizing the first Tehran Biennial in 1958 and was a dedicated educator at the Fine Arts Academy. In the 1960s, he relocated to the United States, establishing Universal Galleries in Minneapolis. 

In 1975, Grigorian helped organize the Group of Free Painters and Sculptors in Tehran and was a founder member. Other founding artists included Gholamhossein Nami, Massoud Arabshahi, Morteza Momayez, Mir Abdolrez Daryabeigi, and Faramarz Pilaram.

His series “Earthworks” was on canvas and it used a mixture of clay and straw called “kahgel,” which is commonly found as a building material in villages in Iran. He exhibited his clay and straw works in Yerevan in 1991. Grigorian was also an early artist with land art in Iran.

In his later years, he settled in Yerevan, Armenia, where he created the Museum of the Middle East and donated thousands of artworks. His legacy was marred by tragedy when he was fatally assaulted in 2007.

Established in 1977, the TMoCA has more than 4,000 items that include 19th and 20th century’s world-class Iranian, European, and American paintings, prints, drawings, and sculptures. Being the biggest collection of Western art in the Eastern world, it includes works from almost all artistic periods and movements.

The museum was designed by Iranian architect Kamran Diba who employed elements from traditional Persian architecture. The building itself can be regarded as an example of contemporary art, in the style of an underground Guggenheim Museum. Most of the museum area is located underground with a circular walkway that spirals downwards with galleries branching outwards. Western sculptures by artists such as Ernst, Giacometti, Magritte, and Moore can be found in the museum's gardens.

SS/SAB